Skip to main content

Narrow interests and Universal values


Times are tough in the world. The banking collapse has brought serious problems in the global flows of money, while the huge growth in Asia has put serious pressure on the price of commodities and energy, especially oil. Global food prices have been rising sharply as the result of several extreme weather events. Indeed this spike in food prices has clearly been a factor in the North African Arab revolt.

Even still it is a bit disappointing seeing the English Language press being so down-beat about the events in Libya. Instead of being inspired by the determination of the Libyan people to rid themselves of their vile dictator, there are endless articles about the "terror" of the expats and the fact that the oil price has been rising as a result.

Frankly a short term oil spike is a price well worth paying in order to get the Libyan people free from their bondage, and anyway, foreigners do not seem to have been the target of either side. It is not the expats who have been targeted by the desperate despot, but his own people. The courage and ingenuity that the Libyan people are showing is truly heroic. This is not a revolution in support of the Al Qaida death cult but in support of the Western values of democracy and mutual respect.

Instead of bemoaning the short term problems, we should be cheering on the Arab world as it finally unites in support of a more open and open minded political system. We should have the courage that our universal values are truly stronger and more attractive than either the oppression of dictatorship or the millenarian nonsense of the primitive fanatics. The peoples of North Africa are speaking the language of democracy and in the liberated areas of Cyrenaica and Tripolitania it seems to be the practice too, with citizens councils emerging to restore normal life. The restoration of the flow of Libyan oil would be set to be quite rapid- were it not for the fact that all the foreigners involved have run away.

What does it say about too many in the west that we would prefer the -as it turned out shallow rooted- "stability" of the criminal Gadaffi to the liberation of his people- for surely that is the message we are giving for as long as we are prepared to leave the Libyans to their fate at the hands of a regime which is now irretrievably lost.

The sacrifices that the Libyan people are making for their freedom are a noble message of determination to achieve the freedoms that we take for granted. We should be proud and delighted that democracy may yet set free the Arabs. This is not a moment for fear- it is a moment to embrace those who are seeking to build a new, tolerant, free and democratic system on the wreckage of the discredited dictatorships of the past. The revolutions 20 years ago in Central and Eastern Europe were not universally successful- at least not in Russia or the Stans, yet for most even there, they have unleashed undreamed of freedom and prosperity. There is no reason why that can not happen to the Arab world as well.

The West should embrace these revolutions, as the Chinese Government- fearfully- can not. We should remind ourselves that, for all its faults, the democratic way offers far more to satisfy the human spirit than the authoritarianism of autocrat, or of party, or of radical mosque ever could.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Concert and Blues

Tallinn is full tonight... Big concerts on at the Song field The Weeknd and Bonnie Tyler (!). The place is buzzing and some sixty thousand concert goers have booked every bed for thirty miles around Tallinn. It should be a busy high summer, but it isn´t. Tourism is down sharply overall. Only 70 cruise ships calling this season, versus over 300 before Ukraine. Since no one goes to St Pete, demand has fallen, and of course people think that Estonia is not safe. We are tired. The economy is still under big pressure, and the fall of tourism is a significant part of that. The credit rating for Estonia has been downgraded as the government struggles with spending. The summer has been a little gloomy, and soon the long and slow autumn will drift into the dark of the year. Yesterday I met with more refugees: the usual horrible stories, the usual tears. I try to make myself immune, but I can´t. These people are wounded in spirit, carrying their grief in a terrible cradling. I try to project hop
Post a Comment
Read more

Media misdirection

In the small print of the UK budget we find that the Chancellor of the Exchequer (the British Finance Minister) has allocated a further 15 billion Pounds to the funding for the UK track and trace system. This means that the cost of the UK´s track and trace system is now 37 billion Pounds.  That is approximately €43 billion or US$51 billion, which is to say that it is amount of money greater than the national GDP of over 110 countries, or if you prefer, it is roughly the same number as the combined GDP of the 34 smallest economies of the planet.  As at December 2020, 70% of the contracts for the track and trace system were awarded by the Conservative government without a competitive tender being made . The program is overseen by Dido Harding , who is not only a Conservative Life Peer, but the wife of a Conservative MP, John Penrose, and a contemporary of David Cameron and Boris Johnson at Oxford. Many of these untendered contracts have been given to companies that seem to have no notewo
Post a Comment
Read more

One Year On

  Head vabariigi iseseisvuspäeva! Happy Estonian Independence Day! It is one year since I stood outside the Estonian Parliament for the traditional raising of the national flag from Tall Hermann tower. Looking at the young fraternities gathered with their flags, I was very sure that Estonia too would soon be facing the aggression of the criminal Russian regime. A tragic and dark day. 5 eyes intelligence had been clear: an all out invasion was going to happen, and Putin´s goals included- and still include- "restoration" of Russian imperial power across Europe, even to the Atlantic. Yet there was one Western intelligence failure: we all underestimated the guts of the Ukrainian armed forces, the ZSU, and its President and people. One year on, Estonia, and indeed all the front line states against Russia, knows that Ukraine saved us. Estonia used that time to prepare itself, should that "delayed" onslaught ever be unleashed, but equally the determination of Kaja Kallas,
Post a Comment
Read more